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Kosovo leader resigns to face UN charges

March 09, 2005|By Items compiled from Tribune news services.

PRISTINA, SERBIA-MONTENEGRO — Kosovo's prime minister resigned Tuesday to surrender to a UN court that he said has indicted him for alleged war crimes. But he insisted that he is innocent of the charges.

Ramush Haradinaj, in office for three months, said he would leave Wednesday for The Hague, where the tribunal is based.

"I have been called upon to make a sacrifice, something I never believed would happen," he said. "This means also cooperation with international justice, however unjust it is."

Haradinaj said his actions as an ethnic Albanian rebel commander during the 1989-99 war against Serb forces were consistent with international law.

Serbian officials accuse him of command responsibility in the alleged killing of several Serb civilians in 1998.